Mamata to attend Oppn unity meeting, Abhishek to do the heavy lifting

TMC sources said that while Mamata and Abhishek would fly down on July 17, they might skip the dinner for Opposition parties later that day, hosted by Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and attended by senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi. The TMC leaders will attend the talks to be held the next day.

PTI reported that Mamata will skip the dinner on account of post-operative care advised by doctors following a ligament tear during campaigning for the panchayat polls.

Sources said the presence of Abhishek at the talks is a message from the TMC side on his rising star, with the young leader expected to drive the tone of the party’s message. The crux of it might be expressing displeasure over the aggressive campaign against the TMC in West Bengal by the state units of the Congress and CPI(M).

A senior leader of the TMC said that they were clear about defeating the BJP and hence serious about a national alliance. However, the leader said, the stance of the Congress and Left in Bengal was an issue, and Abhishek is expected to raise this at the meeting.

On July 9, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had commented on the violence during the Bengal panchayat polls, saying that there should be fair elections, “or else no democracy will prevail”.

Mamata earlier made her displeasure clear over the Congress and CPI(M) criticism, saying: “I feel pity for the CPI(M) and Congress. I will not say anything because there is talk of a national alliance, but do you think you will behave this way and I will entertain you?”

The main source of the TMC’s ire is Congress Bengal president Adhir Chowdhury, a vocal critic of the TMC and Mamata. In the panchayat elections, the TMC faced the maximum challenge in Chowdhury’s bastion of Murshidabad.

Chowdhury said it was Mamata who was being hypocritical. “Mamata Banerjee played with the Opposition’s blood in the panchayat elections, and now she is going to talk of Opposition unity nationally. This duplicity is not acceptable.”

Abhishek’s aggressive posturing might also be a tactic to ward off the heat the TMC is expecting over the panchayat election violence, with the toll crossing 50, at the Opposition meeting. A senior leader said the clashes had left the party’s image tarnished nationally. “Nowhere in India do elections see such a large number of persons dying now. This will be a negative for us at the Opposition meeting. The saving grace is that most of the people who died were our cadre. So, it is evident that the violence was driven by the Opposition,” the leader said.

BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari mocked the three bitter Bengal rivals coming together to talk unity in Bengaluru. “Mamata Banerjee is hitting out at the Congress and CPI(M) in the state, but having tea with Sitaram Yechury in Patna,” Adhikari said, adding that Rahul Gandhi “does not even acknowledge Banerjee” but she is still going for the talks.